The Vice Presidential candidate of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi, criticised the anti-graft war of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration, saying it was crippling investment into the nation’s economy and responsible for the increasing job losses.
Obi stated this at the Vice Presidents debate last Friday, organised by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and the Nigerian Election Debate Group, noting that foreign direct investment in the nation’s economy had significant reduced while employment opportunities had also reduced since the advent of the Buhari’s administration.
Obi, who was a former governor of Anambra State, criticized several polices of the current administration and berated the administration for not initiating policies on how to salvage the economy, which had been negatively affected by the anti-graft campaign.
“It is not that you can not fight corruption but you can fight it more aggressively addressing economy issues. For example, in 2015 unemployment was 24 percent today it is 40 percent.
“In 2015, we attracted $21 bilion in foreign direct investment but we attracted only $12 billion last year.
“Our GDP was N500 billion in 2015, while per-capital was $2,500, today it is under $1,900. If you look at our stock market we have lost over N2 trillion in one year,” Obi noted.
However, Nigerians have not ceased to react since the Friday’s debate by the Vice Presidential candidates. Some recent tweets include that of presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, and others.
The parties and candidates at the debate were Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Abdulganiyu Galadima; Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Khadijah Abdullahi-Iya; All Progressives Congress (APC), Yemi Osinbajo; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi and Young Progressives Party (YPP), Umma Getso.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said, “Corruption is the major cause of the country’s current challenges, which must be tackled head-on.”
While acknowledging issues of poverty in the county, he said the administration’s social investment programmes were put in place to address poverty in the country and that they invested heavily in power distribution, to address the problem of electricity in the country.
Getso of the YPP said the girl-child education and women empowerment is her priority. She also emphasised that subsidy in petroleum products is a scam and should be removed completely.
Abdullahi-Iya of the ANN said her party if voted into office would ensure transparency and tackle unemployment while Galadima of ACPN said his party would work with technocrats to develop the country’s economy and make her the envy of other nations.
However, their responses at the debate drew mixed reactions from Twitter users.
In his reaction, the presidential candidate of PDP, Abubakar, said via his verified Twitter handle, that he watched Mr Obi “with pride.”
@atiku “I watched with pride as @PeterObi laid out our vision to get Nigeria working again. Can’t wait for the presidential debate. #2019Debate”
The senate president, Saraki said the PDP vice presidential candidate reeled out facts at the debate.
‘Tonight, @PeterObi, the Vice-Presidential Candidate of our great party, @OfficialPDPNig, reeled out the facts.
